The Competitive Advantage

August 9, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 8 – Differentiate your firm

Our summer blog series has covered of number of tactical topics like developing a list of new sales prospects, enhancing your online presence or getting active on LinkedIn.  Now, it’s time to do a little strategic thinking…

When I was starting Harpeth Marketing and doing my due diligence, I spoke with research firms across the county.  One of the questions I asked every one of them was, “How do you differentiate your firm from your competitors?”

For those that didn’t have a point of differentiation (a POD) – which was the majority of them – the answers were consistent across the board… and not very compelling.  They all said nearly the same thing, “We do great work… we have great people… and we really take care of our clients.”

Sound familiar?!  Is that how you would respond to that question?  And if everyone is saying that – then no one is really different!  Which, for the most part, is the case.  And if that’s the case… how can research buyers make a decision?  How do you stand out?  Why should they choose you over your competitors?  Which leads us to…

Summer tip #8: Establish your Points of Differentiation

July 31, 2013

Management or sales… you can’t serve two masters.

I work with firms of all shapes and sizes in the market research industry and, with relatively few exceptions, senior-level executives at these firms have significant business development responsibility. And not just the let’s-bring-in-the-big-gun-to-close-the-deal type of responsibility; they have real and ongoing sales responsibility while also being responsible for research projects, working with clients, managing their companies and so on.

I think this happens for a handful of reasons:

July 30, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 7 – develop content ideas

I hope you’ve been following along this summer and implementing some of the ideas we’ve been discussing.  Whether it’s getting ready for the fall conference season, targeting new sales prospects or even cleaning up your in-house database, the summer is a great time to work “on” your business.  But we’ve got a few more to go…

One of the most popular tactics in marketing today – and it’s popular because it works – is ‘content marketing.’  That is, sharing information and ideas to help your clients and prospective clients.  And in helping, it builds credibility for your firm and positions you as a subject matter expert.

This content most often takes the shape of blog posts, articles, white papers, case studies, ebooks, podcasts and videos.  Throw in the occasional webinar and that about covers it.

One of the biggest challenges with content marketing is deciding what to write about… what the ‘content’ in ‘content marketing’ is going to be.  Which leads us to…

July 24, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 6 – target new sales prospects

There you are, sitting at the beach, cool drink in your hands, warm waters lapping at your toes… and you’re complaining to yourself that business needs to improve.   OK, so what are you doing to make that happen?  Remember… “If you keep doin’ what you’re doin’… you’ll keep gettin’ what you’re gettin’!”

Our summer blog series has, for the most part, been marketing-related – prepping for conferences, getting active on LinkedIn, enhancing your online presence, even cleaning up your database.

But now it’s time to put on your ‘sales’ hat.  It’s time to start reaching out to actual human beings, starting a dialogue and helping them to make good purchasing decisions.

July 16, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 5 – database clean-up

So far, our recommendations for getting through the slower-than-we-want-it-to-be summer have been pretty positive, pretty upbeat…

• Plan for conferences
• Get active on LinkedIn
• Spruce up your online presence
• Get smarter about marketing & sales

But now, we’ve got a recommendation that’s a little boring and a little tedious… but hugely beneficial!

Summer tip #5: Clean up your databases

I can see you now… rolling your eyes at the prospect of having to read through hundreds, if not thousands, of client and prospect records.  I get it… it’s no fun.  But it’s critical.

July 9, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 4 – get smarter about business development

So, are you keeping up… are you taking the time to focus on your marketing & sales this summer?  I hope so, because it’s a great time to do it.  We started with conferences, LinkedIn your online presence and now…

Summer tip #4: Get smarter about business development

Marketing has evolved and changed as much as any discipline in business.  We used to think about marketing as print ads and direct mail.  Then along came the internet and our choices expanded to include email and banner ads.  And in the last few years, thanks to advances in technology, our choices have expanded further to include social media marketing, search engine optimization and mobile marketing.

With the proliferation of options – where do you turn for answers?  Ironically, to the same technologies that are the cause of this anxiety in the first place… the internet and social media.  There’s enough information available – most of it for free – to make almost anyone a marketing expert!

July 5, 2013

Prove it! Nine ways to convince prospects to work with you for the first time.

Years ago, Geoffrey Moore published a popular and important book called Crossing the Chasm. The book was written in the early days of the tech boom and provided a road map showing companies that had developed a new technology how to convince consumers to try it. The key strategy was to leverage the early adopters as “proof sources” to help those who followed overcome their hesitancy to buy (“Let someone else buy it first. If it works as promised, then I’ll try it.”).

And while only a few of us are in the business of providing technology or tech-based services, there is still hesitancy from prospective clients when it comes to trying us for the very first time.

How do you convince new prospects to become a first-time client… A great capabilities presentation? A dazzling proposal? A first-timer discount? A guarantee?

All of those options are good and your prospective clients will appreciate them all but what they really want is peace of mind! They want to know that if they take a chance on your firm, they won’t be let down or disappointed. Can you blame them?

July 3, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 3 – spruce up your online presence

OK, we’re now three weeks into this series of working “on” your business during the summer slowdown that many of us face.  Based on my earlier posts, have you done some planning for the fall conference season?  Or spent any time improving your use of LinkedIn?  I hope so.

Here’s the suggestion for this week…

Summer tip #3: Spruce up your online presence